Join the Reformation! Part 1

by Jim Howard

I’ll never forget the first Bible study I ever gave someone. I was a new Christian and only 24 years old. A friend of a friend had shared a powerful study with my family and me on a Sabbath afternoon. He used a white board with colorful dry erase markers, the Bible, and the book Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen White. Certain friends and family members weren’t present to hear it the first time it was given, so we eagerly asked our new friend to share again when others could be there. I must have watched him share that study three or four times, and I was more deeply impressed every time I heard it!

Later when visiting with some other friends, I couldn’t help but share what I had learned. I just knew that my friends would be excited about it. So out came the white board, the colored markers, the Bible, and Patriarchs and Prophets. It was a copycat study if there ever was one! And I was right. My friends loved it. I experienced just as much joy sharing it as I did when hearing it for the first time.

Not long after that day, I learned about the Amazing Facts Bible Study guides. They were so powerful and yet so simple. I didn’t need to write them myself and I didn’t need a white board! I began to invite people into my home to study through the lessons together, and let me tell you that Jesus was present at those meetings. I can think of several souls who were baptized as a result of those simple Bible studies given in my pre-pastor days. How thankful I am to God for raising up Adventist pioneer Stephen Haskell, the man credited with first using the question-and-answer method of Bible study in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.